Cork seeks €170m to build 18,000 houses

Cork County Council has sought funding from the Government for the development of up to 18,000 houses under proposals worth more than €170m.

In August, Simon Coveney, the housing minister, launched the local infrastructure housing activation fund under the Government’s action plan for housing and homelessness.

Cork County Council has now applied for two bundles of infrastructural investment under the scheme.

The local authority wants to build up to 10,500 houses as part of a €100m investment in five urban extension projects in Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Glanmire, Carrigtwohill and Midleton. It has applied for a €30m investment, which it will match with €10m from its own funds, in order to leverage €106m of expenditure.

Furthermore, it has sought a €66m investment in local infrastructure for community housing needs across 14 separate locations. Up to 7,500 houses will be funded by that investment. The council said €37m of that total will go towards “high demand” areas and €29m to other locations “where housing development is also required to facilitate balanced regional growth”.

Tim Lucey, the county council’s chief executive, said: “These planned investment proposals submitted by the county council, if supported by Government, have the potential to bring a level of certainty to infrastructure development to support house builders and facilitate a significant increase in the delivery of homes across the areas of highest housing demand in the county.

“The housing provided will consist of conventional family housing but with the emphasis towards meeting the needs of first time buyers and young families.”

Mr Lucey said that with the population of Cork city and county accounting for 542,196 people according to the 2016 census, Cork had a role to play in the plan for “Rebuilding Ireland” — the action plan for housing and homelessness launched by Mr Coveney in July.

Over the course of this year, Cork County Council has been carrying out research to identify, what it described as, infrastructural deficits across the county which represent barriers to the development of housing.

“The infrastructure and housing projects set out in the county’s application for funding are fully aligned with national and local planning frameworks, building on the national spatial strategy and on CASP, with a particular focus on infrastructural requirements in the Cork Metropolitan Area,” the local authority said.

To complement its application to the minister, the council has also been working with the National Treasury Management Agency to develop an investment funding model which would enable it to leverage the larger €106m.

“Availability of housing is fundamental to the continued economic development of Metropolitan Cork,” the local authority said.